Monday, January 18, 2010

The Gmail accounts of foreign reporters in at least two news bureaus in Beijing have been hijacked, a journalists' group in China said Monday.

The news comes just one week after Google said it had been targeted by recent cyberattacks aimed at accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The US search giant cited the attacks as one reason it has decided to stop censoring its Chinese search engine and may ultimately close its China offices.

The hijacked Gmail accounts used by the journalists in Beijing had been set to forward all e-mails to a stranger's address, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China said in an e-mail to members. The group did not name the news organizations hit by the attack or say when the hijacking occurred.

"We remind all members that journalists in China have been particular targets of hacker attacks in the last two years," the group's e-mail said.

Last year the group said it had received reports that the news assistants of foreign reporters in China were being targeted by e-mailed viruses.

Well-known Chinese human rights lawyer Teng Biao last week said in a blog post that his Gmail account had recently been hacked. Other Chinese dissidents including artist Ai Weiwei have reportedly made similar statements in recent days.